MBCN in the News

As we explained here, during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month we are focusing on people who are living with metastatic breast cancer.

Katherine O’Brien is a business-to-business editor from Chicago and a volunteer with the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN) who contributed the following blog post about her experience with metastatic breast cancer:

At a 2009 breast cancer seminar, I met two MBCN volunteers: Joani Gudeman and Shirley Mertz. I had never met another person with metastatic breast cancer. Joani and Shirley made me feel less alone. Their activism inspired me.

This year, 230,000 women will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer. To kick off Breast Cancer awareness month, we brought in 15 “Champions of Change” who are leaders in the fight to end breast cancer. They represent activists, scientists and health care providers who are making a difference in this fight every day.

MBCN editor's note: We are proud that MBCN member Shirley A. Mertz has been recognized for her "passion and focus as a breast cancer activist, a voice for the needs of those who today are suffering with advanced or Stage IV breast cancer and those who one day will receive such a diagnosis"

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, on today's episode, the Cancer Support Community focuses on Stage IV breast cancer, or what is commonly referred to as advanced breast cancer. Kim Thiboldeaux is joined by Ginny Knackmuhs, a patient living with and an advocate for advanced breast caner, and Dr. Lidia Schapira, a medical oncologist with a specialty in breast cancer from Gillette Center for Breast Cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. Tune in to find out how to control advanced breast cancer while maintaining a healthy quality of life.

“Susan was a strong, vocal person who confronted issues head on,” says Shirley Mertz, a fellow MBC Network volunteer. “She played a key role in getting Rep. Rosa De Lauro (CT) to introduce a resolution in the House to declare October 13 as Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day.”

Dian Corneliussen-James, also known as CJ, has a history of helping to find missing persons. Toward the end of her 24-year career as an Air Force Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Corneliussen-James took a position in the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) in Washington, D.C., and she continued in that position as a civilian following her Air Force retirement....

CJ didn't know at the time that this particular skill set would later serve in the identification of another group of missing persons, those diagnosed with metastatic (stage IV) breast cancer.

By the time Suzanne Hebert realized that her doctor was wrong and that the hard lump in her breast wasn’t a normal part of breast-feeding, the tumor was the size of a stopwatch and the cancer had spread to her spine.

In losing the heroic Elizabeth Edwards, we see the reality of breast cancer. It isn't all pretty pink ribbons and cures. Usually the celebrities who fight breast cancer and win are the public face of this disease. This is a teachable moment about the progress that has not been made in finding a cure.

Despite her illness she maintained an active schedule - a source of hope for those similarly afflicted.We hear often about women, particularly celebrities, who have completed their treatment for an early-stage breast cancer. We rarely hear about women like Edwards whose breast cancer is treatable but ultimately unbeatable.